WASHINGTON – President-elect Barack Obama pivoted quickly to begin filling out his new administration on Wednesday, selecting hard-charging Illinois Rep. Rahm Emanuel as White House chief of staff while aides stepped up the pace of transition work that had been cloaked in pre-election secrecy.

Several Democrats confirmed that Emanuel had been offered the job. While it was not clear he had accepted, a rejection would amount to an unlikely public snub of the new president-elect within hours of an Electoral College victory.

With hundreds of jobs to fill and only 10 weeks until Inauguration Day, Obama and his transition team confronted a formidable task complicated by his anti-lobbyist campaign rhetoric.

The official campaign Web Site said no political appointees would be permitted to work on “regulations or contracts directly and substantially related to their prior employer for two years. And no political appointee will be able to lobby the executive branch after leaving government service during the remainder of the administration.”

On Nov. 3, 2007, candidate Obama went considerably further than that while campaigning in South Carolina. “I don’t take a dime of their money, and when I am president, they won’t find a job in my White House,” he said of lobbyists at the time.

On the morning after making history, the man elected the first black president had breakfast with his wife and two daughters at their Chicago home, went to a gym and visited his downtown offices.

Aides said he planned no public appearances until later in the week, when he has promised to hold a news conference.

As president-elect, he begins receiving highly classified briefings from top intelligence officials today.

In offering the post of White House chief of staff to Emanuel, Obama turned to a fellow Chicago politician with a far different style, a man known for his bluntness as well as his single-minded determination.

Emanuel was a political and policy aide in Bill Clinton’s White House.

Leaving that, he turned to investment banking, then won a Chicago-area House seat six years ago, moving quickly into the leadership. As chairman of the Democratic campaign committee in 2006, he played an instrumental role in restoring his party to power.

Emanuel maintained neutrality during the long primary battle between Obama and Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton.

The day after the election there already was jockeying for Cabinet appointments. Several Democrats, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts, who won a new six-year term on Tuesday, was angling for secretary of state. Kerry’s spokeswoman, Brigid O’Rourke, disputed the reports.

The transition team is headed by John Podesta, who served as chief of staff under former President Clinton; Pete Rouse, who has been Obama’s chief of staff in the Senate; and Valerie Jarrett, a friend of the president-elect and campaign adviser.

The Senate is scheduled to hold a postelection session in two weeks.

That places Obama in uncharted territory, a president-elect, presumably first among equals among congressional Democrats. Yet his and their ability to enact legislation depends almost entirely until Inauguration Day on President Bush’s willingness to sign it.

Obama’s running mate, Sen. Joe Biden, was elected to a new six-year term from Delaware on Tuesday and he must resign before he can be sworn in as vice president. Democrats are certain to hold his seat, following Jack Markell’s election as governor.

Obama also must resign his Senate seat before he can be sworn in as the 44 th president. Democratic Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich will pick a replacement.

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